US Patent 11792045 Elastic VPN that bridges remote islands

A network device employs a transmitter configured to transmit a registration request to a software defined network (SDN) controller. The network device employs a receiver to receive a reply from the SDN controller. The reply indicates a plurality of provider edge (PE) devices coupled to a carrier network. The network device employs a processor to cause the transmitter and receiver to establish a plurality of asymmetric connections to a virtual private network (VPN) operating over a wide area network (WAN) via the PE devices.